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Jason Rhian: For long time followers of SpaceVidcast, you'll remember that Discovery
rolled to the launch pad first on September 20th back in 2010.
Well, tonight they're going to go out again after they've done several repairs to the orbiter's external tank.
Cracks were discovered during a launch attempt on November 5th and they've since been repaired
and Discovery is ready to try one more time.
I was here back in September when Discovery was rolled out to the launch pad for the first time.
But I have to say, in a way I'm almost glad that some of the events that took place between now and then
did happen because I was not able to get where I am right now.
And as selfish as that sounds, I'm hoping our friendly Spacevidcast viewers see why.
Well, I've been given a wonderful opportunity by one of my friends out at the press site.
I can't mention any names, but they showed me the "sweet spot". Check this out!
We are currently on level 16 looking down the length of the full stack of Discovery.
As you can see, we're pretty close.
Alright, when the engines for the massive beast that is the crawler-transporter fired up,
these plumes of smoke shot up, so they're getting ready to move Discovery out to the launch pad.
Ben always worries about audio and I think this is one case, and I really can't do a lot about it,
that the sound of the crawler-transporter is so deafening that it's very hard to hear much of anything right now.
I see that a lot of people down below are wearing earmuffs.
I'm wondering if maybe, yeah maybe I should too.
Oh well.
The xenons have turned our way and you can tell that it has back-lit the orbiter in a way that is just unbelievable.
I wish all you guys could be here to see this. It is an incredible sight.
It's just an eye-watering sight. I'll be blind for some time to come, but that's just part of the job.
Stephanie, this is the second time that Discovery has rolled out to the pad and
I've got to tell you, it's a gorgeous night for this tonight.
Where are we at right now? Where are we going with this? What's happening right now?
Stephanie Stilson: Well, we've completed all the modifications on the external tank that were required.
So now we're in normal operating mode where we're rolling out to the launch pad,
and we'll go through all the systems checkouts to ensure we can validate that the pad systems
are working together with all the vehicle systems.
So, we're coming into what we would call almost a standard processing flow out at the launch pad.
Jason: Okay, sounds great. Now, there are some exciting developments.
You know, I've been out here for a while and covering some things and maybe you could
expound on that. Tell us a little bit more about some of the really fun stuff that's going on for this roll out.
Stephanie: Sure. Well, something new that we did for the last roll out and we did again this time,
is that we allowed employees to bring their friends and family out.
Normally if you're a badged employee you can come out here and watch roll out, that's not a problem.
But you can't bring anybody who's not badged out with you.
We came up with some car placards that allowed folks to do that and so it was
overwhelmingly a good response from everybody.
In fact, when we did it last time, I had so many people come up to me and say
"what a great opportunity that we got to do this." So, we did it again, and I'll tell you what,
there are 900 placards that were given out and I believe we gave them all out.
Jason: So you're cleaned out now?
Stephanie: Yes, and I don't know if you heard them earlier. I heard them hooting and cheering and
clapping, so it was a great thing.
Jason: Alright, take two for Discovery heading to the launch pad. Let's hope this time
is the charm and on February 24th we'll see a lovely launch.
This has been Jason Rhian for Spacevidcast.